Issue #197Clues By The Thousands September 28, 2012

“I Have Seen the Future” button, 1940. Image courtesy of the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation / Harry Ransom Center.The pin is currently on display in the Harry Ransom Center’s exhibition I Have Seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America

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From the Editor

Before you get to the meat of this issue I would like to take a moment and remind you of our ongoing plea for funds. We are seeking a partner and major funder who is willing to support us with a significant donation for the coming years and are asking for your help. Please contact our publisher Laurence Miller at: lmiller@fluentcollab.org to discuss the possibilities of partnering with us here at ...might be good. As always, thank you for your consideration, support and readership.

This past weekend took me to Austin, as much to escape Houston, as to make the openings at The University of Texas’ Visual Arts Center and Okay Mountain. Neither space’s exhibition offerings disappointed. On tap for this weekend AMOA-Arthouse is opening an exhibition of Nick Cave’s sound suits (familiar to those who saw Cave’s New York exhibitions last year) and a retrospective of sorts from Andy Coolquitt who will recombine some 60 sculptures made between 2006-2011 into a new site-specific installation. (If you’re in Houston and need a Coolquitt fix he’s showing at Devin Borden Gallery until October 27.) Momentum seems to be building for the Austin institution that looks to welcome its new director, Louis Grachos, come November.

The Blanton Museum of Art will be celebrating its 50th birthday this coming year and is currently host to Paul Pfeiffer’s exhibition The Rules of Basketball. Austin-based artist and writer Jessica Matthews gives us her thoughts on the show which combines Pfeiffer’s work with James Naismith’s original rules for the game—on loan from local Austin collectors Suzanne and David Booth. Guest curated by Regine Basha, it's good to see The Blanton dipping their toes back into the contemporary art water. Due to health reasons Basha recently relinquished her leadership role at San Antonio’s Artpace and the veritable international residency program now finds itself under the direction of Amada Cruz. Over the course of her interview with Cruz writer Claire Ruud discovers how the new Executive Director might lead and guide the program into the future.

A busy summer of international exhibitions is almost behind us and was most assuredly highlighted by documenta (13). Berlin-based critic and curator Cathy Byrd singles out three works that utilized the storied Karlsaue Park as exhibition site in her review of this iteration of Kassel’s show. Closer to home writer Tanja Baudoin pays a visit to SITE Sante Fe for a look at More Real? Art In The Age Of Truthiness. Our relationship to what is truth and what is fiction has become increasing ambiguous, especially during this, a campaign season, and Baudoin skillfully teases out how these issues are at work in the exhibition. Politics, this time the perceived leftward lean of artists and academia, is the subject of Chicago based artist and writer Patrick Bobilin whose engrossing Long Read plots a course from the G.I. Bill to contemporary art and where the left may have gone wrong along the way.

Pull up your ottoman, pour yourself a second cup of coffee and jump right in—great things await. When you’ve finished up, or are somewhere in between, let us know how we’re doing and what you’re thinking about by sending us an email to: askus@fluentcollab.org or posting a comment on the site.